The present invention relates to the use of lignin derivatives for antiviral drugs, in particular, to the prevention and the therapy against AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) virus.
The number of patients with AIDS has abruptly increased in recent times, centering in U.S.A. and Africa currently it amounts to about fifty thousand persons, the virus carriers being existent in about a hundred times as many persons, all over the world. It is said that almost all virus carriers come down with disease within five years and the death rate reaches about 100%. AIDS makes the immune system of living bodies come to collapse by virtue that AIDS virus infects the helper T cells governing the immune system and destroys them. As a result, persons fall the opportunistic infection, malignant tumor or the like to die with this disease.
Up to this date, nucleic acid-based AZT (azidothymidine) alone is approved for the therapeutic drug against AIDS. The AZT, however, cannot stand the use for a long term due to the intensive side effects (anemiz etc.).
On the other hand, lignin exists abundantly in the world of nature after cellulose, is contained in almost all plants, and has been ingested by human being as a part of foods. In recent, the physiological effects (effect for intestinal disorders etc.) thereof are attracting an attention as a kind of vegetable fibers. Moreover, the lignin derivatives are produced centering the spent liquor in the pulp and paper industry. The potential thereof as a medicinal drug is, however, hardly investigated and merely the antitumoral property is known.
There, the physiological effect of ligninsulfonic acid and other lignin derivatives, in particular, the antiviral effect thereof against NDV (Newcastle Disease Virus) belonging to the paramyxovirus family and RSV (Rous Sarcoma Virus) belonging to the retrovirus family, to which AIDS virus also belongs, has been investigated leading to the completion of the invention.